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MEET THE KNOBBERS – Italian synth meeting

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On 21-5-2011 “MEET THE KNOBBERS” has been the first synth meeting in Tuscany, Italy.

The meeting has been conceived as the first of a serie of musical events regarding synths and the application of electronic music in different enviroments, from interactions between art and music to live performances.
The location was the ” SOUNDY Musical Center ” , a recording studio with live hall and various live rooms, settled near Siena, in the beautiful country hills of the Chianti shire.
The meeting was a “One day only” event, with an afternoon in “total addiction” tweaking feast and a night of electronic music live.

The afternoon was spent with two “live rooms” full of machines and “knobbers” who played them but with a lot of curious people too!
Knobbers came from nord and south of Italy, everyone with his “toy”, as special guest Enrico Cosimi , the famous italian synth guru.
One room was dedicated to vintage stuff and DIY Modulars and synths, the other was based on Eurorack modular systems and pedals effects.
The afternoon led to interewsting electronic jam sessions with acoustic and electric instruments too such as guitars and bass.

The after dinner live sets was focused on various type of electronic music played by different artists, ambient electronica with GATTOBUS and his group, glitch/IDM with MICROSWITCH , electro with YES EXPRESS and deep house with ANDREA PEDRA.

MEET THE KNOBBERS are :

Andrea Pedrazzoli (producer, dj, live performer as Andrea Pedra/Whitesushi)

Francesco Poggianti (producer, live performer as Microswitch/Xtal/Notchsider)

a little list of the “knobbers” who made this meeting such a succesful event:

  • Maurizio Falconi with his DIY analog modular synth and lots of DIY material
  • Ludus Pinski with his awesome  Formant DIY modular
  • Niccolò “Cardinen” Caldini with his Cardinen DIY modular synth
  • Daniele Borri with his glitch mutant sound generator
  • Noctivaga with his eurorack “trolley travel”
  • Hatefish with his eurorack modular
  • Giacomo Frati  & Paolo Zemauno with their custom pedalboards
  • Gianni Proietti with his Minimoog model D

and last but not least Mimmo Nocera for his kindness and friendship, helping us to make this event come true giving the availability of the Soundy.

modulars

Harvestman Hertz Donut demo part-1

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I’ve done some audio demo of the Harvestman Hertz Donut as a “standalone unit”, the audio path is just Hertz Donut and A132-3 VCA , no filters, no efx!
The only modules used to control the vco and the vca are a MFB ADSR on the VCA and a Plan B Model 10 on some sounds to control fm amount and wave discontinuity on the hertz donut.
The Hertz Donut is a voltage controlled digital dual oscillator that can provide sine, saw, tri and square waves on both the generators and a ringmod for the square waves.
The oscillators can work synched together in some different modes :

  • No Sync
  • Bad
  • Worse
  • Stupid
  • “strong” Sync

As you can imagine except for the No sync option the other sync options go from a classic perfect sync to a bad , worse or even “stupid” wich forces the second oscillator out of sync in random ways, shifting the sync point .

Harvestman Hertz Donut demo1 by francescopoggianti

The idea behind the Hertz Donut is to get a Zero-FM oscillator using a Primary (the first oscillator) and a MODULATION (second oscillator) with different kind of sync and modulation capabilities over Frequency , Wave Shape and AMP.
Frequency , Shape and AMP are the possible destinations of the modulation oscillator, the Hertz Donut is indeed a simple 2 operator FM & AM generator!



Harvestman Hertz Donut Demo 2 by francescopoggianti



Harvestman Hertz Donut Demo 3 by francescopoggianti

modulars

4 Filters shootout (part1)

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The 4 filters:

  1. Doepfer A-120
  2. STG Soundlabs Post-lawsuit LPF
  3. Analog Systems RS-500 e
  4. Analogue Solutions SY02 Multimode filter

The oscillator: MFB OSC02 Triple VCO

The two filters that can be directly compared are the A120 and the STG, they are both 4 pole, 24dB slope ladder filters.
Ladder filters copy the classic “moog filter” (electronically speaking) so they have a very definite cut , a really fast response to modulations and oscillates at full resonance generating a sine wave.

The DOEPFER A120 was concived as the classic moog emulator but it doesn’t sound moogish at all, it is very clear and have a minimal touch to the sound, it lacks the organic carachter of the ladder moog, but it’s perfect for other tasks as aggressive minimal sounds or percussions.

The STG LPF emulates the ARP 2600 filter “post lawsuit” (the one used after the legal problems with R.Moog). I tried this filter face to face with the original and it is quite similar but not the same, but it retains the warmth and power. The only downfall of this filter is a kind of bleed you can hear as the resonance increase, not very pleasant but all in all tolerable. This filter has 2 freq inputs and 2 signal inputs all without attenuators, 1 amount input and a audio output.

The Analogue Solutions SY02 was dsigned as a Korg MS 20 filters and vca clone. It consist of a highpass + lowpass filters both with resonance and amount and a vca. The sound is raw and the filter can distort easy, this module is used even in the Vostok and Black Coffee . The fourth filter is the Analog Systems RS500e, a diode filter with 18dB and 24dB slope  clone of the classic EMS VCS3 and AKS Synthi (pre and post 1974). This filter has the classic frequency, amount and response  (resonance) controls plus a level in and level out (to get a kind of overdrive sound) and a cv slew (fast or standard), a mod that was usually done on the original synthi.

The first set of demo is based on arpeggio and bass sounds as they show the behaviour of the filters in simple sounds.

modulars, videos

Livewire Vulcan with Sync reset Mod

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Really interesting video from intellijel youtube channel of the Livewire Vulcan modded with sync reset.

Video not available

Description by intellijel :

Demo of a mod done to the Livewire Vulcan to allow independent reset of the two LFOs.
To the right of the Vulcan you can see a 4HP panel with the two jacks mounted, behind this is a circuit board designed to interface to the Vulcan and process incoming triggers.
Jack1 is normalled to Jack 2 so that one cable can trigger both resets. Modules used: MFB SEQ-01 (provides the triggers) Livewire AFG (single oscillator that is being modulated) QMMG (not doing anything until the later parts where I modulate its in LPG mode) Doepfer VCA (just being used as an attenuator) The SEQ-01 could be replaced by any source of rhythmic triggers including gates from your midi to cv converter.
The demo starts with no sync and simple modulation and then I start to patch more complex triggers and cross mod. Sorry for the poor quality! I forgot to turn on the camera light…. future videos will be better :) Also this mod is not for sale but I can provide instructions… it is not for beginners though. I plan to add switches for selecting mod sources and jacks to patch in external CV to the SUM/DIFF/MAX/MIN circuits

modulars, synthetizers

PlanB Model 10 – polyphonic envelope

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Plan B Model 10
Plan B Model 10

The PlanB model 10 is a multifunctional module, not only a simple envelope.
The name “polyphonic envelope” does not describe the functions of this great module, the reason why they called it “polyphonic” is because it can output 4 different type of voltage “envelope” at the same time.
In fact the M10 is way more versatile than an envelope, this is really similar to the Bananalogue VCS module, a multitask voltage controlled cv generator .

The main task is the ENVELOPE.
The envelope consist of an AD env with RISE (0.5 ms-5 min attack)and FALL (0.5 ms – 5 min decay/release) controlled not by gate signals but by Triggers.
The attack and decay time can stretched x8 times their duration with the TIMEBASE control knob (so the complete envelope can last from 0.5 milliseconds to 20 minutes).
You can stretch the time manually just turning the knob or controlling it with the VC TB (voltage control timebase).
The VC TB can act in positive or negative, so it can add or subtract.
Than there is the level of the env, which is bipolar too , so it can act as a positive or inverted envelope.
On the left there are the 5 connectors for the 4 different envelopes generated:

  • EOC
  • EOA
  • RAMP
  • 2x AD (with ad contour switch)

The AD acts as the classic “trig” envelope, with 3 different contour (log, lin, exp).
The RAMP is a ramp with rise time 2x the RISE control time.
The EOA is a sustained square which falls when receive a trig and performs the AD cycle  at the “End Of Attack”.
The EOC acts as the EOA but the AD starts at the End Of Contour.

LFO MODE

The rise-fall cycle can be looped and can also work as an lfo.
Using the rise and fall it can produce various waveform between the tri, square, saw, ramp…
The interesting thing is that the timebase knob can control the time of the lfo, so it a vc lfo, the other thing that can lead to creative results is the fact that the rate of the lfo is not controlled by the timebase only, but it ‘s a mix of the rise and fall time.
So the shorter is the R&F the faster will be the lfo rate.

VCO MODE

The third interesting mode is the vco function.
The module has a  triangle-core , so it can sound useful even as a vco.
To get the vco mode  you have to switch into LFO and use fast R&F time and “tune” the oscillator with the timebase function and VC TB to control it with a keyboard cv.
It does not reach very high frequencies but can be used on the low and mid range as an audio modulator or a audio source.

TIPS:
I noticed two useful tips:

  • As the core is a TRI-core the envelope create a sort of clip when, reached the max value,start the fall.
    To avoid the clip it’s useful to use a lowpass filter post the VCA.
  • In LFO mode don’t connect any source to the trig in because the summing of the two sources can damage the module , too high voltage!

modulars, synthetizers

Analogue Solutions SY02 – Multimode Filter review

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Analogue Solutions SY02 Multimode Filter VCA

Analogue Solutions SY02 Multimode Filter VCA

I’m a great fan of the Korg MS-20, as it’s one of my favourite synths ever, so I decided to expand my modular with an MS-20 filter clone.
There are many emulators/clones in eurorack format for the Korg filter, but I focused on three modules:

  • Doepfer X-treme filter
  • Malekko (Wiard) Borg (Buchla-Korg)
  • Analogue Solutions SY02

I like the Borg but it works only as a multimode filter that can out put only one signal, so it’s quite limited.
The Doepfer is interesting but I found the ASOL the more versatile and at the same time interesting  as carachter.
The first thing to say that  THIS IS NOT THE MS-20 FILTER!
In its way it can have common caracteristics and sounds very similar but it’s not the same.

The module has a vertical row of connections for CVand audio INs on the left and the knobs on the right.
There is a an INPUT LEVEL to adjust the gain for the incoming sounds, that useful to saturate or lead the filters to overdrive.
On the left there are 2 AUDIO IN .
Than there is the HIGHPASS Filter section with

  • Cutoff
  • Resonance
  • HPF CV

The HPF CV has 2 CV in the first is attenuated by the knob while the second has no attenuation control.

The LOWPASS Filter section has the same controls:

  • Cutoff
  • Resonance
  • LPF CV

As for the HPF even the LPF filter has 2 cv in and only the first is attenuated by the LPF CV.

There is aslso a VCA section with :

  • Initial Level
  • Volume
  • Audio out (minijack)

The VCA has its 2 CV IN not attenuated.

This module is the FILTER/VCA section usedon the Analogue Solutions VOSTOK too, the construction is solid and the VCA it’s a really good add o this filter.
The filters have a really particular response , tryng to emulate the Korg MS-20 filters/VCA, and the input gain is the key to get smooth sounds  or enter in noise territory.
I’ve patched the synth in a very simple way to understand clearly the behaviour of this module.
I’ve patched only the first vco (from my MFB OSC02) directly into the first audio in of the sy02, used the MFB Dual ADSR to control the vca ancd the LPF.
With a low input level the sound is really mellow and “japanese”, smooth and deep.
As I turn the input level clockwise, the waveform gain in volume and in saturation until “distortion”.
Distorion is like a good overdriven sound , not a clear distortion.
As the filter , with a low input level flows into the filters they react quite smoothly and the resonance has a pleasant harmonic sound but reaches only little aggressive tones.
As the input level grows the filters start to saturate and overdrive the sound, and using ring mod with saw sources it creates a particular clipping , like if it would cut and drive the peaks of the saw waves.
A really interesting trick that every MS-20 user knows is using the HPF as a frequency booster.
In fact the resonance of the HPF can produce a really big amount of sub frequencies  usable to fatten up the sound.
If the HPF is controlled with the tracking of the keyboard  it can create very powerful SUB basses.

Behond the FILTERS  there’s a good (in my opinion) VCA that concurs to give a strong carachter to the module.
The VCA does not ave a superfast response or a extra dynamic behaviour, but it’s very warm and full, really musical!
For me it’s very important for a module to be “musical” because too often a modular synth can do amazing noises but cannot play a bass sound , and that’s quite absurd.
Doepfer modules  (like the A-132-3 DVCA I own) have a cleaner sound and more volume but are less musical (in my opinion but maybe you will like it), and I find this useful for percussive sounds or effects and less pleasant for melodic sounds.

Back to the SY02 , I’m really happy with this module, it has a certain retrò/MS-20 touch, but it also has a carachter of its own.
I really recommend it to everyone looking for a japanese touch in his modular sounds!

modulars, synthetizers

Eurorack vs Roland System-100 audio demos (part2)

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MFB OSC 02

MFB OSC 02

Yesterday I tested the MFB VCO and the MFB Dual ADSR with my Roland System100 mod 102, during the test I did some demo recordings.
The demos are quite long and in every demo I used the same “sequence” and tweaked the knobs to let you hear the behaviour of the system.
As the melody is quite redundant  I hope you don’t get annoyed and focalize your attenction on the sounds.

  • VCO MFB with Roland filter
    The MFB VCO (only one vco) passes trhu the Roland System100  filter.
    First I use a saw wave then a square without any modulation and play with the filter to show as the the two modules interact.
  • VCO MFB with System100 and MFB Dual ADSR
    The MFB VCO pass thru the Roland filter and the MFB env modulates the Roland filter cutoff.
    It starsts with a saw wave , than at 1’30 I switch to the PWM and continue playing with the filter and with the MFB env.
    At 4’50 I turn the Roland VCO volume up…
  • VCO PWM (Roland System100 vs MFB)
    Here’s a comparison between the two vco passing thru the Roland System100.
    They both produce the PWM with a similar rate, the MFB sounds a bit harder, it may need an attenuator for PW mod…
    The first is the Roland and the second is the MFB

PAY ATTENCTION!!
When you listen to the sound keep the volume at a fixed level, don’t turn up the volume when some sounds seem more quiet because there are some resonance peaks that can DAMAGE your speakers and your EARS!

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